Tv, Boston Celtics | featured news

The Miami Heat's win over the Boston Celtics to reach the NBA finals has drawn the highest preliminary television rating for an NBA playoff game on cable since records started being kept in 2003.

The NBA's championship-winning game for the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday was seen by nearly 24 million people, leading ABC to its most-watched week during the slow summer season in nearly 10 years. The Nielsen Co. said the Mavericks' series victory over the Miami Heat was seen by an average of 17.3 million people over the six games. That's a little less than the viewership for last year's Lakers-Celtics series, which had the advantage of going to a climactic seventh game.

Ratings for Game 1 of the NBA Finals are up from last year, highlighting the rivalry between the Lakers and the Celtics.

TV News: Game is second most-watched in net's history -- ESPN's telecast of the Cleveland Cavaliers-Boston Celtics game Thursday night was the second most-watched college or pro basketball game in the net's history as 8.9 million viewers tuned in.